… otherwise known as the United States Permanent Resident Card, previously known as the Alien Registration Receipt Card, commonly known as the Green Card :-)

Click here (wikipedia) for more info about the green card

Today, therefore, is a fitting day for me to write, for the first time, as a lawful permanent resident of these United States of America :-)

This brings to a close an extraordinarily long and frustrating chapter in my life - the wait for the Department of Homeland Security to grant me permanent residence status. It has been a humbling process, requiring fingerprints every year and application every year for permission to work for one more year. It has been a strange process, constantly reminding me that I’m here only because my skills are specialized and valuable enough for a corporation to need me here. For that reason, I could not contemplate changing my career to a different area - I could only be employed in some area that utilized the same highly specialized skills that make me rare enough for a company to have to hire me because they could not find enough American citizens to do what I do.

The time scale made it especially frustrating - my employer applied for my green card in March 2001, the application reached the final stage in March 2003, and we have been waiting four years since then for the final stamp of approval.

Last year, Alexis and I seriously considered re-applying for a green card as a spouse of a US citizen, abandoning the employment-based green card application. We decided to give it one more year, and now, finally, I have permission to stay without conditions on employment or skill - I got the green card in category “E36″, which translates to “Alien who is a skilled worker”, but now I am free in a variety of aspects.

Here are some of these immediate freedoms:

  • I can go back to school to study anything I want, for example history or sociology. Previously, I would have had to apply for a foreign student visa, during which process I would have had to explain why I wanted to study my chosen area, and why I could not study it in India.
  • I can travel to Canada or Mexico without needing a visa. This means that when Alexis and I travel to Buffalo to see Niagara Falls, we can freely walk across the border to see it from the Canadian side without worrying about me being denied entry into Canada, and conversely being denied re-entry into the US.
  • I can leave my engineering job and start teaching any subject I’m qualified to teach at a high school or college. Previously, I would have had to convince another employer to sponsor my green card and we would have had to find subjects for me to teach that would have been tightly tied to my engineering area of expertise. Now, I can seek further education to get qualified to teach, say, American history, or English literature, or physics.
  • I can vote in local elections that allow permanent residents to vote. I still can’t vote in Presidential elections, but I can now contribute more toward my local community.
  • This also means I have significant rights as an immigrant about to become a citizen :-) I can register to own firearms, for example - something that became very difficult for foreigners to do (legally anyway) after 2001.

One area where there hasn’t been much of a change is this : I can now participate in local community with more legitimate legal standing than as a foreign national temporarily residing here. As a permanent resident, I claim that I intend to truly live here, to truly integrate myself with my community and contribute to it positively. One major factor in the permanent resident application process was a variety of screening procedures to ensure that I would not become a burden on the US taxpayer - various forms I had to fill out that promised I had a stable source of employment and that I would not be claiming Welfare.

In this aspect I feel that I have lived these past 7-8 years as a fully contributing member of my local community. Many people are surprised if they find out that I am actually an Indian citizen who is not a permanent resident, because I have lived as a citizen, as a resident, as someone who has chosen to truly live HERE.

That aspect does not change - I continue to LIVE here, to contribute my tax dollars to the betterment of my community, to invest my time and resources in my neighbors and building friendships HERE, to take an interest in local matters and to champion local causes, to be a contributing member of local volunteer groups and communities. I have cheerfully donated my money for use HERE, I have gladly volunteered my skills and energies HERE, and I have consistently supported the efforts of those around me who have wanted to make positive change happen HERE.

This is in stark contrast to the usual stereotype of foreign workers - that they work here but don’t actually LIVE here, that they send their earned income back home, that they are a drain on local resources because they don’t contribute monetarily or physically or emotionally back to their communities here.

In the next couple of years I will become eligible to apply for US citizenship, and I look forward to that process :-) I will write more about that major decision, and why I have chosen to pursue that path, but for now it is time to celebrate Independence :-)

A couple of days ago I went to a minor-league baseball game with several friends. It was a poignant moment for me as the national anthem was sung before the game - I know the words from being at many games before, but this time, for the first time, as a permanent resident, I sang along :-)

Happy 4th of July!